Word Games

As a family, we have for many years played word games around the dinner table and traveling in the car. Most of them are alphabet games. For example, the subject will be food, so we will go around the table each naming a food that starts with the next letter in the alphabet. So, Hubby will start with A and he’ll say Asparagus, then it will go to oldest son whose letter is B and he will say Banana and so on around the table. The more creative you can get with your food names, the better. Some are tough and some kids struggle more than others to come up with a good word for the letter. Even Hubby and I struggle sometimes to come up with something.


We’ve played this game with many different topics. Sometimes we’ll pick something easy like food so everyone in the family can participate, but sometimes when it’s just Hubby, Oldest Son and I playing, we’ll try a more challenging topic. We have great fun. My son’s teachers have told us over the years they are amazed with his vocabulary and we think some of this success is because of this silly game.

Well, in recent months, we’ve been watching a family favorite TV show whose entire premise is funny games. So, lately we have had many meals where we speak only in questions. It’s tough and pretty funny.

Last night we tried a new variation on the game with song titles (stealing the idea right from the show). This was really hard. I know a lot of music and a lot of songs, but when you are under pressure, it can be hard to come up with one that makes sense with the situation we are trying to talk about. Last night’s topic was “At the amusement park”. The beginning was easy. I was able to come up with “Ticket to Ride” and “Tunnel of Love”, but after that, it got harder. My second son struggled with this game and managed to come up with only two song titles, but his were the best. At one point in the game, there was a long pause as we all were thinking of a good song title. Second son looked at us and said, “Word Up?” At the end of the game when we all gave up, this same son points to his older brother and declares, “Super Freak.” Fabulous!!!